NOT Chelsea, our local garden exhibition

I had the good fortune to shelter from the mad May gales last weekend and attend (for work) the local annual garden show. Whilst it was on at the same time as Chelsea, its not really the same kind of affair. Mair wellies covered in cloots and overalls than your average garden show punter doon sooth I'll bet.

 

Whilst there's no judging, or display gardens, or giant vegetables, there's a good few plant stalls right enough (I think perhaps a conservative estimate would be SIX). We don't like to over populate the place with horticulturalists either, they'd just end up collectively gathering in a potting shed forming protests about the weather. And, aside the protesting horti's we like to keep our plant choices most sensible here, so you'll not see many tropical gardens or tender perennials up for sale looking lush and lavish. Folks here are just too honest and the faces are too well kent (known) to be selling plants that just won't grow here. So when asked 'will that grow here?' the seller will be nothing but honest, you probably bide (live) near several of his rellies and his granny. No one really wins if you're sold the wrong plant for the climate. specialising in mainly perennial hardy shrubs and flowers, aplines (mostly primula's), hardy veg, herbs and flownsy, blousy annuals (for the more sheltered spot).

 

So aside a wee puckle of sensible plants, there's not much comparison with Chelsea. However, if you can see by the plants, there is a real treat. MOWERS. Lovely shiny, fab looking, just want one or I'd die, mowers.

 Plenty of the chat in Orkney tends to involve mowers/grass and well, mowing. So there are always plenty of shiny things for sale at these shows up here, not exactly Chelsea but hey you cut your cloth to suit your self. Grass GROWS well here, so mowers are this (and last and the season before's) must have item. In a place where the grass never really stops growing, a good mower is worth its weight in silage.

 

However I did not buy one.

 I was good.

I hope you're proud of me. 

I stepped away from the mowers.

 

I did this rather sensible act for a couple of reasons. Firstly I HAVE a mower (the type is RED, I'm a girl after all) and a rather fabulous trailer (nestled in the garage for the new house), which I swapped for a months grass cutting, with a piano (which I don't use for grass cutting, the cellist also refuses to play whilst I mow). Secondly I currently have no grass in my tiny cottage with a divan sized front garden, which means one is a luxury I can't really explain, two is a bit, well, 'collectorish'. Its not exactly a fetish my mower addiction, but I'll leave it at the one big sit on one, hiding in the shed for the moment. People would talk.

 

Now aside all the mowers, delicious food from the 'Mart Cafe' and plants (which will survive here) I was actually working. We had a composting display and managed to sneak in a few things about recycling too. Like plant labels. Now we can't recycle plastic tubs where I live, its the 'wrong' type of plastic. However, a lovely lady showed me a fabulous way to make labels from old tubs.

Now, I know this isn't the kind of thing you're likely to see at Chelsea either, but hey if it saves you money, reduces plastic into landfill, why not make your own labels too?

You don't actually have to take them to Chelsea either, I don't think they'd really fit in.

Although on seeing the bothy garden created with Shetland stone at Chelsea link here (photograph no 7, thanks GP), there might be a few snuck in there from the old crofters, who never threw anything out. Canny lot those crofters.

If you build it, they will come.

So to add a bit of structure in the new patch, I decided, being short of space both front and back of the house, I had to think on the vertical. Whilst you can wait for trees to grow and climbers to do their thing, nothing say's instant gardening like a bird table. No, I hadn't really seen any birds out there, but I was working on the philosophy that if I built one, they would come. It also helps break up that 'looking at a car park vibe' we have going on and keeps the puppy amused, he watches out there for hours. 

A great book, a bargain 50p find at a local charity shop.

So before taking on such vertical planning, I consulted one of the googolplex of gardening books. I'm ashamed to say I've not counted my gardening books lately, they are good at keeping us insulated here on the bookshelves. The main message was, when trying to garden for wildlife, be it a bird table or planning a bird friendly hedge, plan for your audience - well that was easy - ME! I want to watch the birds on the table, so I'm the audience.

Um, it would appear not, the audience in this particular book, was the birds I was trying to attract. Silly me, well that was a lesson to be learnt. So we put up the table, furnished the surrounding area with a couple of bird friendly trees and some suitable plants in pots and waited patiently. After what seemed like 'seasons' passed, they came. First the starlings, then the sparrows, a pair of collared doves, a cheeky rook and then a Robin popped over to join the party with a Mr & Mrs Blackbird lurking over the past few days. And we now see them on a daily basis, although it took a month or so for them to pop along. How beautiful is that Robin?

Robin photo from the lovely Essex Hebridean, pop over and see some of her amazing photographs.

You'll be pleased to hear that the photographs of birds I've found are not mine. My bird photography resembles my cooking photography, not great. So a few are borrowed from a stunning photographer, aptly named fellow blogger 'Robyn'. 

 

One thing I do miss in Orkney is whilst we have a stunning array of wild life, woodland and garden birds are not so plentiful. This is probably the 4th Robin I've seen in the 12 years I've been in Orkney, I'm not complaining, we're blessed with sea birds, waders and moorland birds.

So the vertical gardening out there with the bird table has been a roaring success. We built, we waited and they did come! Its been so successful in fact we've branched out into the 'divan' garden out the front (its only slightly longer than a single divan!) and we've put a bird feeder out there. Building on the 'if you wait, wait, wait' they'll use it, and finally they've started to. Only two starlings on there at the moment (certainly not enough for a pie), so I'll just keep waiting to see who else shows up. Hiding whilst washing up, behind the Christmas cactus........ 

So you can imagine our delight today whilst lurking on the sofa finishing paperwork in front of the woodfire (its cold here) that we had a visit from a Waxwing. I'd heard there were a few in the village from our postie, but never thought I'd see one as clear as day on the picnic bench by the bird table.

Waxwing photo from Franck Renard

  So I'm glad we did build it for them, the regulars and the more exotic migrants! Are you looking after the wildlife in your garden? I wonder who visits you? For now, the table has a regular audience, me the older dog and the younger pup, who takes up residence in the front row!

Haggis keeping watch on the birds outside to make sure they behave.

There's a free guide on how to attract birds to your garden here, why not give it a go? Who know's who'll turn up - and if it keeps this cold, maybe next time I'll get a few of these.........

Must get some sardines in, just in case!

I do my garden thinking whilst standing on one leg, on the window ledge...........

Increasing my own self-sufficency, I've discovered, after a gale, that if you lean out of the window, with a flowery sweeping brush in your hand and *adjust* (bash vigorously, but without damage) the satelite dish on the side of the house, you restore your television signal nicely. Well done me, that saved a call to the local TV shop, who I'm sure are very busy fixing alot of that kind of issue after bad winds. However, it also leads to a different view of the garden, whilst perched on the windowsill, upstairs, trying not to fall out of the window. Therefore I stood there for a while, contemplating, stretching and thinking some more. A cellist entered the room and sat down, unphased by my window ledge, yoga-esk flowery brush wielding stance- 'Telly off again? Guess that was the wind, whats for tea?', shes very clever like that. Nothing much phases her, she returned to her book, the fall out of gales are pretty normal on an island, although not generally so much in the summer.

There you go something productive to come out of bad weather, a different view of the garden and an attempt at windowsill yoga. I guess gales and being trapped indoors like last weekend focusses the mind somewhat regarding the garden and leads to novel exercise techniques. You do spend alot of time trapped indoors thinking and looking at the weather and the garden and how its working or as, with my garden, not working very well with the wind. With the hind sight of last year, I'd removed the garden bird feeder during the storm, last year the feeder we had ended up in the hedge, thankfully not the house - but I didn't want to risk it again. Therefore I moved it, I'm thinking where it can go next and I will HAVE to concrete this in to avoid a birdfeeder/window encounter. Thats clear enough, twice in the space of a year, thats needing done.

It would appear, on the positive after the garden flooded/gale trashing incident, the 'pond' idea for the bed outside the lounge/sunny room is a great idea, as left to its own devices clearly it WOULD be a pond. Therefore after they've recovered a bit of vertical stature, kept flowering for a bit, or are blown away, the marigold bed will be dug out and a pond will replace it. I'm quite looking forward to this, I've never had a pond before. I'm going to have fish too - why not, and maybe a lily? How exciting! Thankfully we'd harvested the 'Potato onions' just a few days before, a new variety kind of like a shallot, but its an onion, but my onion harvest wasn't great this year, not sure why - too cold perhaps? None of the varieties I've grown have done very well.

The raspberries have taken a battering, currently at 45 degree angle in the garden. The water flooding hasn't helped and I've resigned myself that they need to go under cover. Its too exposed here, but it was worth a go, clearly an 'indoor' crop in this garden. The stems are very damaged, the plants are waterlogged and have socketed quite incredibly during the two days of wind, roots quite broken and exposed. In fact if they'd been any older, I think they really suffer more and more each year. OK, I can cope with that, they need to be moved and will be happier in the about to go up polytunnel. They'll crop better and I'll find it easier to cope with the wind if I don't worry about them. But what to replace them with........I had thought about shrubs, but this part of the garden, despite the hedge is just too exposed for shrubs outwith the shelter of the fence.

The hardy fushia (Fushia magelanica) and the hardy flowering currants (Ribes sanguinium) I had planted for shelter in the borders of the front garden, simply only work by the fence - I've lost 15 out of 20 of them (which I bought argh) and those which are surviving aren't exactly thriving - they aren't back to last years size when I bought them after the gales! Therefore they need the protection of the fence/windbreak and I'll move what's left of them. But what to replace them with? I'm thinking, having looked after the gales, of replacing them with a wholly perennial type planting the local Crocosmia which isn't as trashed as it should be in that wind and flowers nicely late on. I've alot of this on the track and in the waste ground by the house, I feel a bit of 'relocation, relocation, relocation' coming on for it, free plants which will thrive work for me! The photo is Crocosmia 'Lucifer' from Happy Valley, but the bog standard Orkney one, on my track is a nice one too, although a bit more orange, so I'll use that and maybe get a bit of 'Lucifer' for my new Orkney border......

OK so thats those bits taken care of. The new recycled gate  (made from a bunkbed) which was previously solid has blown off 3 times - its had a bit of a butchering now and is not solid anymore, I've knocked out several planks and its now more air-flowing-friendly. I've discovered, that letting the wind filter through is much better than trying to make it go around something. We'll see how that fairs.................or I'll reattach it for the 4th time..............well practice makes perfect eh?

Veggie bed doesn't seem to be too bad and is working well tucked behind the hedge, however, the willow hedge is not liking the gales at this time of year, I've had 3-4 of them blown over, which means I might have to cut it back each year. Gales in the summer can be worse due to the leaves and the heaviness of the trees.  To save them blowing over, I'll keep them trim in future - dreams of 10ft hedges of willow I think might be a bit of a pipedream - they've blown over at 7ft...................but hey you live and learn!

I'm also going to put in an 'Orkney' hardy perennial plant bed around the garden infront of the hedge - I think, to be fair, it will be my best bet for a bit of colour in the garden. Perennials which are hardy and survive here will work, I've my eye on many locally. OK, so the pallete might be limited and the plants might be restricted, but I've decided, whilst standing on one leg, hanging out of the window, gazing at the garden with a flowery brush in my hand, lifes hard enough without fighting with the wind. I'll work with the plants which work with the wind and dream about the others from the comfort of my chair looking at books! I know once the tunnel is up I can develop a more diverse palette of flowers in there. I've no issue using a bit of that space for a flower garden, in fact its compulsary! All, that thinking from being trapped indoors and fighting with the wind!

Oh, and a bit of news from the stripey island homestead - we've two new additons to the family arrived just before the gales - a couple of byre cats, I'm hoping will help with our rodent problem in the winter. 

Introducing Marmalade and Domino, byre cats of distinction and ratters in the making, extraordinaire. They have to be kept in for a few days to get use to their new patch, but are happy enough watching us out of the window for the moment, best place in all that wind! But, I'll have to tell them, when the pond arrives to leave the fish alone...............the winds bad enough!

Finally a bit of garden action, albeit slow progress, in the frozen north!

You'd be hard pressed to find any gardening in this blog, tut, tut. Anyhow, for my bad behaviour of adventuring everywhere, I've been put to hard labour, I got 3 1/2 tonnes of gravel to shovel about the place to try and tidy up the gravel outside the house. No rest for the wicked I guess, should be a bit of free exercise!

 I'll get it all done before the kids come home, was supposed to be done before the visitors arrived, but, hmm, too busy having adventures and freezing to death weather to be out there spreading gravel, so I've half of it to do still!

What have I been upto eh? Well, I've put a fence up at either side of the house and planted another, yup anothe mixed willow hedge (this time mixed with salix  viminalis (basket), hookerania (hookers) and alexanensis (not sure I've spelt that right, but alaskan willow). They were planted last march and cut back so they're getting bushier but not too big yet. I've recycled stobs (fencing posts) and used chicken wire to keep the pesky chickens out. A tub with calendula, thyme and a clematis (which isn't doing too well) by the gate for a bit of colour. My brother also made me a recycled gate from an old set of bunkbeds, but unfortunately on sunday it blew off in the wind (!), whoops, need to put it up better next time!

Through the gate is a pathway of Alchemilla mollis, ladies mantle (a true love or hate plant), I love it, it does well here so just as well! I've used it to soften the concrete path by the house, there was a small gravel channel by the path so I thought putting a plant along the edge of the house would soften the path and make it a bit more inviting. I think it works, I called this my ladies mantle walk, when finished, like the path, the ladies walk will take you all around the house. I love the foliage in cut flowers too, my dear sister-in-law gave me a bunch of white roses when she was here, so we added the ladies mantle foliage to the vase, with a couple of ox-eye daisies which really set them off! Thank you Rach, meant to take a picture, whoops! Next time......x

 The blend between house and path softened nicely. I love the foliage of this plant and it does brilliantly in both the coastal air and in the wet it looks awesome, me thinks it works well here!

 A quick jaunt passed the veggie bed, not much happenning in there thanks to birds/rabbits/wind/small digging dog (!), did these beasts not listen when folk tell you raised beds are good at keeping pets OUT of the veggie garden, um my dog didn't listen, he likes to lie in there or dig in there, not funny!. Everything is quite small still, all put in late as the bed was only filled in properly at the end of June (after pesky PhD viva). Anyhow, this week, I've added a bit of netting to keep out the pesky dog and rabbits to see if that helps, must finish that, I've only got it on 3 sides at the moment!

Hooray, and now, don't hold your breath, but finally some flowers! Now to those of you in a more sheltered climate, seeing a few marigolds (Calendula officinalis) beginning to flower might seem a bit underwhelming at the end of july. I'll grant you, its not so very exciting for you maybe, but for me, the anticipation and waiting until the end of July neary for *something* to flower in this exposed clawed back from the field, almost a garden, it is worth the wait! After those terrible gales in June I thought we'd lost the lot of them but, hark, no, there they go beginning to flower. And, being a true mixatarian of a gardener (flowers and veggies planted in the same bed), they are interplanted with 'Potato onions' a new variety I've not grown before. I hope they get on well. After this year I'm hoping to develop this into a pond for all round interest, but for this year, annual flowers and veggies will be just grand for me. 

Right beside this marigold bed are the raspberries 'Autumn Bliss' - they are coming along, but by no means giants, these I think will go into the polytunnel when its up. I'll see how they are at the end of the summer, but so far with less than 1ft of growth, they aren't looking great. Me thinks its just too exposed outdoors in this garden for them, bear in mind they are in the shelter of a 5-6ft willow hedge.

 And theres the other bit of the hedge - now 7ft in places, not bad when you think only last march this was still a cutting ready to be planted! Its doing away fine, a few gaps in places (where we lost the hebe) but I'll move a bit of willow around to thicken it up where there are gaps. Finally after a year, the bench is built, not that we get to sit on it much (we've had tea out there once!) its pretty cold and windy mostly, but if we get an opportunity, we'll be glad of the table!

I've a few rabbits living in the garden, as if the weather wasn't enough to contend with, there are 2-3 of them dotting about the garden, I quite like them (when they AREN'T eating my veggies), so I've let them be. As an experiment, I've left the grass longer under the table to see if they will eat that, rather than boing about the garden, but so far, I think they've avoided my experiment, shame really.  I thought they might like the longer grass...........we'll see. Its a funny one, I quite like seeing them, but rather they stuck to eating the grass than the garden, not that there is MUCH garden anyway. It will be better next year with more shelter I think, well thats what I'm telling myself!

When living in the exposed coastal islands, shelter is a must for any hope of having a garden. I'm slowly learing now much I need in mine and where I will need more of it. The wind can come from any direction here, so I'm going to divide up the garden more to create smaller areas which might sustain a flower bed or two once they are nicely sheltered. And, if that fails, I'll give up outside and only garden in the polytunnel! But, I'll try very hard first! However, whilst I know that willow can grow very quickly, I'm still astonished by how quickly it can get upto this height from a tiny cutting! Amazing! This part of the hedge is over 6-7ft high.

I'd be lying of course if I told you it was ALL willow, there is a fair amount of 'wild flowers' or um weeds some folks might say too in there. My favourite of these is the thistles, so big and regal. The seed heads will benefit the birds later on and I quite like the bulk they give the hedge - well thats my story, nothing to do with being a lazy gardener, allergic to weeding willow hedges honest!

 And, now sir, time for your close up, very lovely and regal and VERY scottish, you'd almost thing I'd planted them there to enhance the hedge wouldn't you? Not quite what I'd planned, but the foliage of the spear thistle works really well in the hedge and I love the flowers too. I'll leave them be for now!

And, what of the pesky chickens you might ask? Well, they are settled into their summer accomodation quite nicely. They go out for a while most days wrecking havoc when my back is turned. But, on the whole they have *touch wood* stayed out of the main garden which is now fenced off for them. They are a bit of a menace at digging the gravel up (and newly planted ladies mantle) at the sides of the house, but I'm doing that in stages, so I'll eventually get enough in with a good enough hold before they try and pull it up. A bit of compromising means they can be free range for a while each day and then into their enclosure, with lots of lovely grub too. We're learning to live together in harmony, well, no heinous chicken crimes to report this month! Um, so far anyway!

They occasionally dig into the daisy bed, my first bit of gardening here, but so far, aside a bit sparse looking, its coming along fine isn't it? I asked the daisy to come to the rescue last year when I developed this bed, the link to making it is here. I wanted something natural by the byre, to be a bit cheerful and welcoming that could stand our windy climate. Ox-eye daisies are my favourite, so cheerful and welcoming. I'd say its a bit patchy still, but certainly doing what I wanted it to do. I hope it will fill out nicely by the end of the summer if the pesky chickens stop dust bathing in it! The aim was to look as if the bed has always been there, part of the old building, more natural than designed, its settled in well I think. OK, there are weeds, but it adds to the charm of the bed, right?

A few extras came in with the daisies, from where I don't know, Mimulus gutatus (yellow monkey flower), Achellia milliefolium (yarrow) and a bit of fern which I hope will take too! Nice to have a few unexpected bits pop up too.  Another little bed I'd done (originally for the raspberries, but when the hens kept digging them up I moved them......) has rhubarb in it, not looking very happy is it? I'd put in plenty of dung and soil, not sure why its not happy, but I'll leave it and see how it gets on. The hens don't seem to bother it. I might plant mint in here - I want something to rampage through this bed, something chicken proof, mint might do it? Or any other suggestions for a perennial tough enough for wind/salt and pesky chicken feet???

Oh and a nice bonus at the back of that bed, from somewhere a random poppy grew and grew, the chickens didn't eat it, so it was left to bloom! How pretty is that, I've no idea how it got there and while its been windy, its even managed to survive that quite well and has loads of flowers on it. Brilliant!

The chickens dig around it, but don't do any harm at all. Perfect, so there you go, a few things flowering (well two or three), a bit of a hedge coming along, veggies slow but with more protection hope they will come along too and chickens out for good behaviour! Progress is slow, I'll grant you, a bit frustrating, but nevertheless, progress there is. I'll get there, a lot to do, often hampered by the wind, but I'll have fun doing it! I think they call it 'Dunkirk spririt'? I call it gardening in the wind, maybe its island spirit (?!) you just get up, dust yourself off again, plant more shelter and get on with it, despite the wind!

Willow planters thumb.........

Apology, for the lack of communication here - I've been tree and hedge planting (65 trees and 1000 willow cuttings). Haven't they done me proud, that lovely tree up there, all neat and hospital corners on the plastic and lovely cosy tree guards, how cute do they look? When tree planting here - the best way advised is to plant with a mulch mat of plastic (or carpet would do - its just to keep the weeds down  and the moisture in whilst the tree grows and establishes). I'll do a crazy tree planting post to let you see how I did it in my own unique 'jazz' gardening style - and thankfully it worked! I've great hopes for them and thank you to the lady who taught me how to plant them, she knows who she is!

However, I have to say, I have tree stake and willow planters thumb joint, where I kept hitting my thumb joint with a hammer. I'm blaming my bruised thumb on my inept ability at co-ordinating a hammer towards the stake, or the hard wood cutting, rather than it being the hammers fault. Honest injun. I can still type, therefore I need to stop moaning and get back to the point. Lets have a lovely look at my little trees to be, my willow hedge cuttings, ready for action - a forest in a bowl, cool huh.........?

As for the hedge - first we soak our little cuttings in a bit of water for 24 hours to let them get a good start - no specialist equipment here - a jug, a bow, a bucket - just remember to put them in the right way up!!!The buds face up, not down as I appeared to have done with one set - whoops! Turned them right way quickly! The latin for willow (salix) is from the Celtic meaning - 'near water'. Very apt as willow loves the wet and does well in our lovely rainy climate. They also tolerate the wind, well there was a book wasn't there? The wind and the willows, how very apt that is - willow goes well here despite our windy weather - it makes a great windbreak hedge. Best get on with it eh?

There we are with all the bits and bobs, getting ready for planting out watch out for that pesky hammer - its not as innocent as it looks! Don't be alarmed, willow hard wood cuttings are as tough as old boots and when you plant larger cuttings sometimes a bit of a knock in with a hammer gets them lodge into the soil nicely and safely - we'd not want them to blow away would we?! Its not cruelty to plants, its helping them out and they are still asleep when I do it - so they don't feel a thing!  

Now we've soaked hard wood cuttings we can get going, for the hedge I'm planting at them 50 cm apart in staggered rows. Again through plastic dug into the ground (a couple inches either side, trenched to keep it down covering the soil), just to keep the weeds down whilst it gets going! Planting willow as a hedge is as simple as planting chunky pencils (bear with me!) - they establish brilliantly from pencil-esk sized cuttings, just pushed into the ground - as long as you've weed cover, they will grow beautifully. But, they don't tolerate weed competition at all - they are a pioneer plant (a plant that takes over in a new patch of ground so they don't like competition, especially from weeds).

A few of the cuttings laid out (or pencils if you like!) - yellow, red, brown, basket and a big leaved one for shelter.......They have all come from a local supplier and a few from a couple of friends with a bit of willow. I've made a mixed willow hedge to give me different interest at different time of the year - I love the different colour of the stems and how the leaves/flowers will emerge at sligthly different times. Kris (who left a comment last time is right) willow is a brilliant addition to a garden for an early nectar/pollen source for insects and bees. But remember - willows are not like alot of normal plants who have both boys and girls ont he same plants willow are single sex - you get a girl plant or a boy plant so if you want a bit more diversity, make sure you get a variety of willow cuttings to get girls and boys on different plants.  

As taking hard wood cuttings is 'vegetative propagation' or 'vegetable proposing' as the cellist says [chucks up images of carrots asking each other out, or is that just me?]. Anyway, you maybe want to be sure you take or get cuttings from more than one plant, as you'll only have the sex that plant is. Its not important, but as willows are terribly promiscuious - you might as well let them have a bit of fun.....(!) and see if you end up with any hybrid baby seedlings of something fun! I mean what if the black stem ones meet up with the yellow ones - and they get on with each other, will they end up black, yellow or stripey babbies? Ok enough with the willow jokes. Ahem.

Anyhow, enough with the nattering, for this hedge I needed to get the spacing right - so I cut a bit of bamboo cane to 50 cm and then I knew that all my cutttings were the right distance apart. And, less faffing about with a tape, easier to just use a bit of cane. I do this if i'm planting veggies too - keeps me right and they get spaced properly, only takes two ticks.

OK for a small area - maybe you don't need to do this but on the other hand, if things not being spaced properly will drive you crazy, then do it - it took a couple of minutes and meant that I have confidence I've spaced it correctly. (And of course it means, very simply, I/you can work out how many cuttings are needed for the length/depth of the hedge). For this one - 1m wide - three rows of willow - staggered at 50 cm apart will give me a lovely deep and wind proof (ish) hedge. Perfect! Next a few handy bits of kit for you're average willow planting person! Eat a hearty breakfast, tree and willow planting is tiring work - you need energy - so get some lovely food down you - in my case boiled eggs - and a silly stripey bowl to make them look pretty. And, yes I did pause before eating and take a photo - how gorgeous are the lovely chookies eggs?

OK, full of grub, next I found my dibber - to make a hole, if needed (kind of like back up, probably not needed but handy to have if required) but mostly the hard wood cutting will pop right into the soil really quickly - but if not making a hole with a dibber (again classic non-tree planting tool) helped to get the cutting deeper into the ground. The children think this is a vampire killing device, but in real life, it's an innocent dibber - not a vampire killer honest....normally it plants leeks - not willow!! Unless it leads a double life?

And, of course, the trusty (albeit turncoat) hammer - is also needed for the stakes and those stubborn willow cuttings - and if you feel the need to hit your thumb joint (often). I'm a champion of odd tools for gardening - I figure why pay premium prices for a tree stake hammer - when in real life a hammer will do the same thing.....

 A pair of gloves (which I never normally wear) but after the tenth time I hit my thumb or hurt my hand pushing in willow cuttings into the ground - I put them on!

 Ta da! One section of hedge finished - 100 m to go!!!! They look like they are all in rows, the middle row is actually staggered distance between the two outer rows, to help it thicken up quickly. I've planted at 8 plants per metre - a bit above the recommended 5-6 a metre but its windy here and I want a really thick hedge. Willow is good at jostling for space and I'm sure they'll all be happy having a wee chat with each other.

In a couple of weeks they will be in leaf and growing - its amazing to think if you plant a stick, up comes a tree - this truly is an amazing plant! By the end of the summer- it will be about 1 m high and helping to keep a bit of the wind out, year two it will be 2-3 m high, year three it will be 4-5 m high but they don't get much taller in our wind but even saying that its pretty impressive - willow is a really great shrub in a windy environment...............in true blue peter style - here's the first one I did earlier last March!

The last one, planted in March/April 2010 - photo taken in late summer 2010 - 5-6 months after planting the willow hedge is about 1m tall just tucked at the windproofing..............it really does work! Work we've done here suggests that unlike normal coppicing (cutting the hedge back to the ground after a year to thicken it up) we are better to have a look at our hedge after the first year and if the growth isn't really vigorous - then wait to cut it back until the next year. That way they establish better, but its entirely depending on how it grows.

But remember, the best advice I can possibly give you, a hearty meal before you plant it all! Watch your thumb.........! AND if you can rope a friend into help you - then do - its quite hard work!!